The Ladywell Assembly takes place tonight, from 7pm-9pm at St Andrew's Centre on Brockley Road.

Residents of Ladywell ward are encouraged to attend the public assembly and air their views about the key issues facing the area. The Brockley Assembly attracted a big turn-out and you can read about it here if you want to know what to expect.

Burned-down house rises from the ashes
The house on the corner of Upper Brockley Road and Geoffrey Road that burned down last year, killing one person, is now almost completely rebuilt. However, some residents have expressed concern that the addition of side windows, facing on to the site of the neighbouring MOT garage, could hamper plans to redevelop that site. Any new application for housing on the garage would be restricted by the need to avoid blocking the new windows.

Ecosium under new management
Well, not that new. But one of the partners in the Harefield Road restuarant has taken outright control, installing a new menu and focusing on the service problems that have blighted the business. Given that much of the criticism it received from Brockley Central readers pre-dates the takeover, it could be worth a reappraisal.

There's no such thing as virtual society
Who better than the harmonious folk of Brockley Central to take part in an experiment about online co-operation?The Department of Psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London is looking for volunteers to take part in a trial of a new online social game.Whether you are into online gaming or not, this is a great excuse to play games whilst contributing to valuable university research. The game involves creating an online persona, or 'Familiar', for yourself and then creating and collaborating on various tasks with other players through your in-game character.All you need to do to take part in the trial is to play the game for 6-8 weeks, but this means you will need internet access. All players taking part in the trial will be entered into a prize draw to win a £150 voucher redeemable at Currys.digital, PC World, or the Link, and after the trial has finished you will be asked to fill in some questionnaires. Goldsmiths is looking for 100 volunteers from all walks of life - you don't need to be an experienced gamer. If you are interested please contact Dr Elaine Beattie on 020 7919 7338 or email e.beattie@gold.ac.uk

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comments:

Has anyone else noticed the shoddy brickwork on Tea Factory? Take a view from the Brockley road traffic lights and look at it. It appears they ran out of the nice bricks and have patches of another sort which appears to be a different quality. I personally hadn't noticed it but it's the first thing my father who's an architect mentioned when I asked him what he thought of the building. His words were, 'they're not leaving it like that are they?'.

Tom - If you think 2 years is a long time, what about that house on Manor Ave that has been derelict since the 80s and under scaffold in a perpetual state of being refurbished since the 90s! I can't believe it is still structurally sound any more

That Goldsmith's experiment thing sounds a bit like an online version of Big Brother and with that in mind I think I'll have to decline the opportunity to help further scientific endeavour on this occasion!

Yes, I notice the shoddy brickwork on the Tea Factory almost daily! It really jars on the eye. There's also some patchy-coloured brickwork a bit lower down, where it looks like they've filled in what was originally a window.I've just dropped the planning department an email about it, will post if I receive a reply!

I want to echo Brockley Kate's comments about the Tea Factory what a disgrace the Tea Factory's appearance has become. I'd thought it was rain that had temporarily discoloured the bricks, but no it's actually DIFFERENT bricks.

I am keen to know what the reasoning is behind this. Personally I find it unacceptable, on the front of a building that faces a high street, it sends out the message that Brockley is a slovenly, 'accept anything kinda place'. It also causes me to question the standards of the builders, because did they not calculate how many bricks of X colour they required before the job began?

This is the address I've obtained for Lewisham planning, I shall be lobbing off an email, questioning what is going on at the Tea Factory. It would be good if others could also.

I think you will find that the bricks are a mixture of old (retained from the existing building) and new (where the building has been extended openings filled etc.)

They may be the same bricks but if some are brand new and others 50 years old they won't appear exactly alike. I expect the builder has done the best he can but we will have to wait for the English weather to do its worst before the new ones blend in.

I quite like the patchwork effect as it shows how the buildng has evolved.

It looks naff, and post rationalising arguements about the evolution of the building don't work for me.

Those discoloured bricks are incongruent. The story about the evolution of the building comes from the juxtaposition of the brick with the green cladding, and the wood at the back, even the name of the building on the side the 'patchwork' bricks, overloads and any 'evolution of the building' rationale.

we know the council has limited resources. We are all busy people. Why use-up their time and yours complaining about a few bricks on a nicely-done building, when there are much bigger things to focus on?

Nick - one might say exactly the same about the Speedicars sign - I'm one of those who don't really get what the fuss is about - BUT I'd never try to tell those who are bothered to stop whingeing about it. Horses for courses, isn't it.

I think it's good that people notice and contact the council about ALL these things, it shows that we care about the neighbourhood.

I clocked the patchwork bricks the other week, but I can't really recall exactly what they looked like. TM is right about weathering, even if they were direct replacements they would look wrong for at least a couple of years - but they may be worse than that?

What do people expect the Council to do about this exactly? Get the developer to demolish the entire building? Remove the 'offending' individual bricks (technically nearly impossible)?

They'll simply note that the new bricks will weather to a similar finish to the old ones.

As a side note, I'm looking out of my office windows at a row of terraces of circa 1850 or so. These are built in London stock brick, i.e. yellowish brick that darkens rapidly on weathering. These have been partly cleaned and indeed on closer inspection have weathered to a wide range of different colours ranging from a dark brownish-grey down to pale yellow - a genuine patchwork. It looks fine, and indeed better than a uniform, unrelieved shade of brick.

Coulgate Street was nice until it was made considerably worse by Speedicars.

The Tea Factory was a derelict hulk until it was made considerably better by the developer, even if some people don't think it's been as good as it should be. It may not even be possible to get an exact brick match. Meanwhile, at ground level, our community gallery (the price that was supposedly extracted from the developer on our behalf) is still in doubt. I just think it's a question of priority.

@Do Dah - no computer rendering is ever exactly the same as the finished product - practicalities like brick weathering always get in the way. Look at the Gherkin for example, widely praised, but even that's not exactly as the renders suggested it would be - the top is dark, whereas the renders suggested it would be transparent.

Besides, as TM says, it may be that the brickwork eventually does match the pictures.

I'm not saying don't whinge, I'm just saying I think a wise course is to choose your battles.

"2 stunning penthouses", I wonder whether the building is as 'rustic' on the inside as it looks on the outside, we all know 'rustic' is estate agent speak for rough.

Nick there's pragmatism and there's downright sloppiness.

I don't think it's 'whingeing' to contact the council about the appearance of a building that will dominate our high street.

And speaking of 'estate agent speak' the developers may well have shot themselves in the foot, because as result of those 'patchwork' bricks, the 'kerb appeal' of that building has gone down and this has implications for the price and speed of sale.

The original planning committee report noted that the extensions to the original building would be done in the same materials, i.e. Fletton brick, in this case.

New Fletton bricks will not look the same as the existing ones. to buy exclusively pre-weathered, used bricks would not have been appropriate for this type of development, given its size, and in any case would not have guaranteed a uniform appearance as they would have to be sourced from various sites each of which would have weathered differently.

In short, there's no other way the work could have been done. Of course people have a right to complain about whatever they want; I just can't see the point of complaining about this particular situation, as it's impossible that it could have been done any other way.

I must admit that I saw the patchwork effect and thought 'shame' - but if they have used Fletton bricks then we will have to wait until they weather. However, I support anyone in getting the council to check and make sure they HAVE used Fletton bricks.

As for priorities in argument - if anyone wants to put in time and effort to check on any building reg, or planning app, to make sure that things have been done as agreed, more power to them. I don't think we should be telling them where to focus. If the council are overworked in planning then they need more people on their team.

I have seen the building; in fact I've looked at it closely. The effect you describe is a natural artefact of the way the development was done - you originally asked what the 'reasoning' behind the building's appearance was; well, this is it. Look around London and you'll see the same thing replicated on hundreds of buildings as a natural consequence of the way building materials work.

As for the computer images, I think it would be argued that they can't predict the weathering patterns of brick, this being a natural, organic process; similarly it could also be argued that within a few years the building will weather to the kind of homogenous texture shown. Why would I want to waste planning officers' time by emailing them over this kind of baseless and pretty much unanswerable complaint?

[TJ] I'd be very surprised if they haven't used Fletton bricks, given that they're among the cheapest you can get; they weren't even intended to be used as facing bricks originally, but got used a lot in industrial buildings, like the Tea Factory.

I like the way he says, "I also have access to other affordable properties in the development and reasonable offers will be considered." £1350pcm for a two bedroom flat on a main road junction with a railway line at the back doesn't sound that desirable or affordable to me, to say the least...

the developers could arrange to have the bricks painted - by specialists. Does anyone remember seeing that on Grand Design programme about the place built in waterloo next to the orchestra that caused an incredible row about non matching bricks?

That's a good point Patrick, the rail way line behind is not only commuter but freight as well and the freight trains trundle past at all hours of the night. Living next door particularly on the lower floors could prove to be somewhat noisy. Not to mention the sub woofing - hatchbacks of Brockley going past on the other side. Does anyone know what the plans are for the tyre garage that sits right next door to the Tea Factory?

Colouring the bricks to "pre-weather" them is the obvious solution but it is expensive and can have an adverse effect long term as the coloured one weather differently to the old ones giving a patchwork effect long term instead of short term.